We had a great time on Route 66 today!

When we left the Best Western Motel in Needles bright and early, it was blue sky and 66 degrees. Gas was a lot more than we pay in Atlanta, but a little less than in Quemado.

We took a few photos in Needles before we hit the highway.

The Mojave Desert is not as we had it pictured. Rather than sand like the Sahara, the terrain isn't that much different than the outskirts of Lubbock, Texas where we attended college.

While the border towns with Mexico have many Border Patrol stations, California had more fruit and vegetable stations.

We passed over the Colorado River into the state of Arizona. Our attention was immediately drawn to mountains with jagged tops. It was these peaks that gave Needles its name.

Our first stop was Lake Havasu City, Arizona. We planned this detour off Route 66 so we could see London Bridge. It's hard to believe, but it's there! Developer, Robert P. McCulloch, paid $2.4 million to buy the bridge, and it then cost $4.5 million to move it and install it at Lake Havasu City. The grand opening was October 10, 1971. It is a wild and crazy idea that worked; Lake Havasu City has become a tourist destination as a result.

The lake is a pretty blue man-made lake, and the bridge is at the far end of town. The bridge is very impressive, but it was disappointing to see many cheap-looking gift shops and the like right there at the bridge.

We spent a little time in the Lake Havasu Visitor Center with Kathie and Oran. Oran said an article was in today's paper indicating that Arizona was seeking money to fully restore Route 66 throughout the state. Best of luck, Arizona! Route 66 is such an important part of US history that we would sure like to see the federal government devote the money to restoring it from California to Illinois.

The drive off Route 66 (and the Interstate) down to Lake Havasu City and back was a pretty one with nice mountains along the way. There were a lot of interesting rock formations on this drive.

As we entered Yucca, Arizona (Exit 25 near the Alamo Road exit off I-40), we saw one of the more unusual sights that we had come across. It was a giant ball mounted atop big poles; it appeared to be someone's home. There were a series of smaller balls with smiley faces that border the property, a space ship, a carousel horse, and more.

I wanted to swing by the Ford Motor Company Arizona Proving Ground in Yucca. I was hoping they might let us take a spin around their track. When we pulled up out front, there were big locked gates, a red light, and signs advising that photography was not permitted. So, we snapped a photo of the sign and rolled on.

As we left the Interstate to get back on Route 66 headed for Oatman, we saw one acre lots advertised for $3,995. Something made us guess you can probably buy them for even less. The area reminded Boz of the "Vacation" movie where Chevy Chase and his family go out to visit Randy Quaid's family way out in the desert. This is a remote area with a lot of places called "Wash," which we believe is an area where water flows after the rare flood. The Route 66 road was very nice -- not the horrible road we were driving for the last 75 miles in California.

The drive from Yucca to Oatman was very interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Boz's knuckles were white, and her palms were really sweaty; she didn't enjoy riding on the cliff side of a treacherous road with no guard rails. The terrain was very interesting -- very diverse. The road has been described as the most difficult and dangerous part of Route 66, and it was an exciting drive. There is absolutely no way that our photos provide even the slightest feel for what we saw and felt as there just wasn't any way to photograph it. I couldn't capture the hairpin turns, sharp cliffs and drop-offs with the variety of scenery.

Oatman promotes that it has wild burros that wander through town, so we appreciated the burro crossing sign we saw along the way. It was sobering to see several wrecked cars on the sides of cliffs as well as a sign that warned bikers about the treacherous turns.

When we pulled over to take a few shots, John Winkle appeared out of nowhere. He was out picking up trash on the road. John is originally from Washington state, and he sells T-shirts in Oatman. In my mind's eye, I saw Oatman as an old, dusty mining town with no commercialization whatsoever, so this T-shirt business was surprising to me. John said: "Oatman is an original old town -- a town that everybody wants to rule, but no one can." Oatman has a woman who has self-appointed herself as mayor. Same thing goes for a man who says he's the sheriff.

We were a little disappointed when we reached Oatman and found it to be little more than a tourist attraction. The old buildings are there, but every one of them is a tourist-oriented business of some type. There were wild burros outside of town, but the burros in town all had names, and we saw pens where they live. It was kind of like seeing the real police station in Carrabelle, Florida where they claim to have the world's smallest police station -- a phone booth out by the highway. Oatman was essentially a smaller Tombstone in that the buildings were for the most part authentic old buildings, but every square inch was tourist-oriented. The drive to and from Oatman and the fabulous scenery made Oatman a most enjoyable outing, however.

Olive Oatman Restaurant & Saloon (www.oatmangold.com/olive) was our choice for lunch. We both tried something new and enjoyed Navajo Tacos. Tom Woodard was the live entertainment in this small cafe. Tom's poster out front said "I am the Band." Tom had a guitar and a microphone with what looked like a DJ console. When he sang his first song, we heard an orchestra! It seems Tom was using karaoke CD's as his accompaniment. We believe he was doing the singing. He tuned his guitar between songs, but we couldn't really tell if he was actually playing. The music was enjoyable; we just couldn't quite figure out where it was all coming from. No one was clapping, so we made sure to make a deposit in the tip jar and compliment him as we left.

Other than mining, Oatman's claim to fame is that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard went there on their honeymoon. We couldn't see the room, but we took a photo of the stairs leading to the room in the Oatman Hotel.

It was 80 degrees in Oatman, but the temperature dropped as we continued to drive east.

We hit the 8,000 mile mark just outside Kingman, Arizona at 2:30 pm. 8,000 miles in 30 days. We are still amazed that we have seen no rain -- just a little drizzle (perhaps 10 minutes in total) on two different occasions in sunny Florida.

We stopped at Mr. D'z Diner in Kingman. The butterfinger milkshake wasn't very good, but we met five folks from Germany -- Bianca, Uvert, Brigitta, Braun, and Petra. Bianca and Uvert invited us to their wedding in Las Vegas on Friday. We would have really enjoyed a detour to attend a Vegas wedding, but we had just made the decision to extend this portion of the trip by two days, and we couldn't add yet another. We wished them the best.

The Powerhouse Visitor's Center in Kingman was supposed to have a good Route 66 Museum, but all we saw were two small display cases with a few promotional items and a big gift shop. Several towns down the road, we were advised that we didn't see the museum. Boz and I didn't see any signs, and the men working in there never even spoke to us. It might have been the beads. We did enjoy a chance encounter with Jeff Mayer in the parking lot. Jeff is one of the original Route 66 Roadologists and a founder of the Illinois Route 66 Association. He and many others were converging on the area for an annual Route 66 Fun Run to Oatman.

Kingman is the hometown of the late character actor, Andy Devine. We really enjoyed his roles when we were children. There is an Andy Devine Museum, and Route 66 is named after him through Kingman.

It was great to see so many old motels still old and still in business in Kingman. The Route 66 road had been extremely nice so far in Arizona -- a real relief after the terrible road in the Mojave Desert in California.

We did a real double-take as we reached the town of Hackberry and saw a gas station and general store that looked like it had been frozen since the 50's. The "Old Route 66 Visitor Center & General Store" provides a fantastic visual experience -- best Route 66 displays so far without question. We met owner John Pritchard; he bought it six years ago. We bought a Route 66 CD, and it was a welcome addition to the drive.

We passed through Valentine, Arizona -- an Indian town.

Pie was on the agenda for Truxton. We scheduled a stop at the Frontier Motel and Restaurant, but it was locked up tight with a "For Sale" sign out front. Call 520-718-1920 if you'd like to buy the place.

Arizona has a lot of Indian reservations, and we passed through the Hualapai Indian Reservation. In Peach Springs, we stopped to take photos of a great old service station building.

Just outside of Peach Springs is the entrance to Grand Canyon Caverns. As I noted from Carlsbad Caverns, both Boz and I are claustrophobic, so caverns we do not tour.

Seligman was next, and we really liked it there. Seligman has a very active Route 66 Historical Association, and I was fortunate to meet and interview the man responsible, Angel Delgadillo. Angel is really well known throughout the Route 66 community. While at Angel's gift shop, I also met his wife Vilma and two visitors, Lorrie Fleming and Bob Walker from Canada. Lorrie was the founder of the Canadian Route 66 Association.

Angel was born on Route 66. His father had a pool hall / barber shop. Angel still had the barber chair his father bought for $140 shortly before Angel was born on April 10, 1926. His father went broke when the route of Route 66 was moved. Angel went to barber college and began cutting hair on May 22, 1950. He moved into his current location on Route 66 in 1972. I wish we had reached Seligman earlier in the day, as I would have loved to get a Route 66 haircut from Angel.

Angel's brother runs the Snow Cap Drive-In -- a wacky drive-in restaurant with all kinds of Route 66 decor and other wild and crazy stuff.

On September 22, 1978, Interstate 40 came near Seligman, and most of the Route 66 traffic moved to the Interstate. Angel's father had gone bust because of a highway change, and Angel was determined that he would not let it happen to him. So, he called a group of people together to form the Arizona Route 66 Association. As a result, Route 66 is alive in Arizona, and many businesses continue to prosper in spite of the Interstate.

The Candlewood Hotel in Anaheim let us down a few days before when we drove out of our way to stay there to do the wash and then the hotel was out of detergent. So, we had to find a Laundromat tonight, or we'd be wearing dirty clothes tomorrow. When we spotted one in Seligman, we shifted into wash and dry mode. We met Nancy at the Laundrymat behind the Seligman Grocery. We also met Zachary and his dog Hilo; they live right next to the Laundrymat.

When we saw a sign that indicated the altitude was 5,700 feet, we were surprised. We didn't realize this part of Arizona was so high, but I guess that's why they call it the "High Desert." When we reached Williams at 8 pm and noted the temperature was a chilly 46 degrees, we could feel the altitude at work. Amber got us all checked into the Fairfield Inn. We decided we wanted to have a full day for the Grand Canyon, so we extended our stay by a night. We planned to split another long day next week, so that will be a total of four days added to the schedule so far.

We were reminded today of the impact a committed person can have. Robert McCulloch was committed to put Lake Havasu City on the map, and he succeeded big-time by buying and moving the London Bridge. And Angel Delgadillo kept Seligman and a number of other towns in Arizona from falling off the map with his commitment to survive and help other businesses survive when the Interstate came and took the cars away. We can all make a difference if we make a commitment to something and then work hard to make it happen.

Random Comments:

Barbara commented that this trip would not have been nearly as much fun if we had not been in a convertible.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we've been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we've seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of "vital statistics" on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you'd like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.